The Southern and Middle-Belt Alliance (SaMBA) has described any Southerner or Middle-Belt person pushing for a Northern President in the coming 2023 presidential election as a political slave who is only after their belly.
The group in a statement released on Monday insisted that it is not in the interest of Nigeria’s unity for power to remain in the North considering that a northerner is about to complete 8 years of Presidency.
The group recalled that the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern protectorates in 1914, was based on a mutual agreement and was never with the intention that the South should play second fiddle to the North.
The statement reads, “We have observed that some Southerners and Middle-Belters, whose god is their belly, have started drumming support for Northern candidates, without consideration for their peoples’ political aspirations. To this group of people, primordial objectives and the fattening of their bank accounts seems to matter most.
“In 2015 the whole of Northern Nigeria united to support and realize the presidential ambitions of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari on the grounds that it was the turn of the North to produce the next president. For this reason, it is hypocritical to deny the South, its turn at the Presidency.
“If we recall, the threat and demand for a president of Northern extraction was so strong that the members of the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were unable to campaign openly for any Southern candidates in the North. So, this begs the question; how is it now that some Southerners and Middle-Belters are against power shift to the South?
“Following this and, even as we admit that everyone has the right under the law to support the candidate of their choice, the South’s and Middle Belt’s aspirations for the Presidency should not be toyed with, for selfish benefits.
“Consequently, any Southerner or Middle-Belter drumming support for any Northern candidate in 2023 is a political slave and should be called out.
“We therefore urge the Southern and Middle-Belt Politicians to speak with one voice, because history will judge anyone who negotiates away the Region’s turn for the Presidency, for their personal gains.
“2023 is the turn of Southern Nigeria if we still desire a United Nigeria.”
